This rivetingly tense Bafta-winning drama crackles with raw energy. Its third series is its finest yet – and is rapidly becoming one of the greatest TV series in existence
T
he third time’s a charm. Not many TV shows’ third seasons are their best, but that is the case with the pulsating, propulsive Blue Lights. One broadsheet critic has hailed the Belfast-set police procedural as “the best drama on the BBC”. It’s hard to argue: apart from the action unfolding in the Celebrity Traitors castle, which doesn’t count no matter how hard Alan Carr hams it up, Blue Lights is the most gripping saga on our screens. It’s fast becoming a British version of The Wire – and a huge part of that is thanks to its female characters.
Following the rookie response officers in the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI), the 2023 debut series became a stealth hit. The second won a Bafta for best drama. Now, the standard and the stakes have miraculously been raised again. This criminally underrated show is going from strength to strength.
Showrunners Declan Lawn and Adam Patterson, who met while making documentaries about the city for Panorama, have conjured up a vivid fictional world, but one always firmly rooted in the realities of contemporary Belfast. Their scripts trace the links between terrorist dissidents, cocaine smugglers, sex traffickers and organised crime. As its canvas broadens, Blue Lights is building into a knotty conspiracy that spans every level of Ulster society.
